Hogwarts Raven (Harry Potter)

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"I'm here for the bounty." Ian hadn't forgotten what the gatekeeper had said.

"Of course, of course..." The King wasn't angry. He simply spoke slowly, his voice heavy with sorrow.

"To tell you the truth, my Queen and I had been married for many years, and only in our old age were we finally blessed with a daughter. Yet, an evil witch robbed us of that joy far too soon."

"Perhaps it was because I didn't invite her to our kingdom's grand feast for the princess. She is a dark witch, unlike the other twelve witches of our realm."

"I was worried she might clash with the others, so I chose not to invite her. Never did I expect that she would hold a grudge and cast a terrible curse upon our daughter in revenge."

"A curse of death... Fortunately, a kind witch helped us alter the curse, allowing our daughter to retain a sliver of hope for survival."

"From death to sleep... For seven years, seven whole years, she has not awakened." The King spoke like an NPC, calmly explaining the situation and its details.

"?????"

At first, Ian was simply surprised, realizing these people had no idea they were already dead. But before he could decide whether or not to reveal this fact,

The King's next words came.

The more Ian listened, the more he felt something was off… and strangely familiar. Twelve kind witches, one dark witch, and a princess cursed into eternal sleep?

Wasn't this the damn story of The Sleeping Beauty?!

"You want to wake up your daughter, right?" Ian finally understood what he was experiencing, and why the King had issued a bounty in the first place.

"Exactly." The King nodded.

At that moment, the Queen also spoke, her face filled with sorrow.

"Time is slipping away. We are aging, drawing closer to death. Yet our daughter still lives... and we want to see her begin a new life once more."

The Queen's voice trembled with emotion, soft sobs escaping her lips.

"No problem!"

Ian had done quite a bit of research on curses. Even if he couldn't directly undo Sleeping Beauty's curse through brute force, he could just rummage through the rest of the Twilight Zone and probably find a dozen princes to try.

Ian still remembered how the sleeping maiden had been awakened.

"By the way, where's that dark witch? Does she live nearby? I'd like to go check her out, do some research. Oh, and if you could give me the addresses of the other twelve witches too, that'd be perfect."

Ian still didn't understand why the people of this kingdom thought they were alive. He could only guess that this bizarre situation must be connected to something magical, or something specifically wizard-related.

"The witch's residence?" The King seemed hesitant.

"It's all to save your daughter, Your Majesty. Don't worry, leave it to me, and I promise there won't be any hidden dangers." Ian spoke eagerly, full of anticipation.

"..."

The more the King listened, the more something felt off.

"You… wouldn't happen to be a dark wizard too, would you?" His gaze turned a little odd as he tested the waters.

"?????"

Ian found the King a bit too cautious. He was clearly such an upright and helpful person, where in the world could the King possibly see the shadow of a dark wizard in him?

"I am the Sage of the Forest, the Philosopher of the Hidden Valley, the Hermit of the Misty City, the Apostle of Light who stands irreconcilably opposed to dark wizards. Your Majesty, why would you slander my innocence like this?" Ian pretended to be displeased, speaking slowly and deliberately, mimicking Grindelwald's tone, naturally imbuing his voice with a sharp, almost pressuring edge.

"This..." The King hesitated.

The Queen hesitated as well.

They hesitated for a long time. Only then did Ian start to feel a bit baffled, realizing, the King and Queen had frozen.

"What the hell?"

Sensing some mysterious force possibly invading from that place across the sea, Ian raised his hand in surprise, waving it in front of the seemingly time-frozen King and Queen.

"No way! I was still waiting for you to show me Sleeping Beauty! Did someone unplug the power, or what?" The young wizard had no clue what just happened.

Just as he was about to roll up his sleeves and give the King and Queen a light "reboot",

"So immersed in a piece of 'dead' history, you're getting a bit too into it, don't you think?"

A faintly mocking voice suddenly rang out, abrupt and unexpected, right behind Ian.

The voice was incredibly familiar.

It also brought that long-lost chill down his spine and scalp-tingling sensation.

"Professor… Morgan."

Ian's smile froze, his stiff neck turning back inch by inch. As expected, the interrogation came immediately after.

"An Apostle of Light who stands irreconcilably against dark wizards, that's what you call the black witch you saw just now?" Though Morgan's voice was as teasing and sarcastic as ever,

Ian's hair was already standing on end.

"Of course I didn't mean you! In my heart, you've never been a black witch. Even if you do black witch things, I know you must have your reasons!" Ian instantly switched to survival mode.

But,

After a round of flattering words, He still couldn't suppress his curiosity.

"So… um… after my vicious senior sister, are you also part of some story from the past?" Ian's voice was cautious and phrased extremely delicately.

He was suspecting that Sleeping Beauty might've been put to sleep by Morgan.

"Use your tiny Pigwidgeon brain, if I had acted, would anyone even get the chance to fall asleep?" Witch Morgan rolled her eyes in pure disdain as she spoke.

"..."

Ian wanted to say that he only suspected her because this Twilight Zone showed the entire Sleeping Beauty kingdom, and wiping out an entire country really did feel like something out of a legendary black witch's playbook.

And perhaps guessing what was on Ian's mind, Morgan let out a soft sigh and led him out of the frozen, out-of-control grand hall.

"Aren't you curious why you appeared here in the first place?" She spoke gently.

"Please enlighten me, Professor." The young wizard answered humbly.

"Because of that." The witch pointed toward a majestic cathedral in the distance.

Then, she pointed to the Sun in the sky.

"You really are a hopeless little Pigwidgeon. I thought I understood you well enough, but I truly didn't expect… that you could do something so outrageous and absurd."

Morgan's words left Ian deeply puzzled.

"That golden wheel on the cathedral… represents the Sun in the sky?" He began speculating, and sure enough, bizarre thoughts started bubbling up.

"Don't tell me..."

Ian's eyes nearly popped out. He hadn't even finished speaking, when Morgan let out a quiet sigh.

"Before, you had Ariana come ask me why you couldn't enter the Twilight Zone. But now I want to ask you... How could someone like you dare to snatch a god's legacy from the hands of a Death God?"

The witch's soft voice,

In this land where time had stopped… was like thunderclap on clear ground.

(End of chapter)